When the Satanic Temple announced plans to commission a statue to sit in front of the Oklahoma statehouse in response to a tablet depicting the Ten Commandments, I was torn about this very, very funny piece of trolling. But when their infernal Indiegogo campaign nearly reached $30,000, I realized that this was some next-level shit.
While the Oklahoma courts and the ACLU battle out the constitutionality of having a religious monument on government property, the Satanic Temple has had the time to see the first stages of their own Baphomet statue, as documented by Vice.
New York-based reporter Jonathan Smith got a first look at the 7-foot-tall statue, which the group plans to have bronzed in the next few months.
Unfortunately, the statue may not have a home: the state has suspended all applications for new monuments on the statehouse grounds while the Ten Commandments case works its way through the courts. According to the Satanic Temple, it’s no biggie: Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves assures the faithful “There are no shortage of public locations across the US where religious monuments await a contrasting voice.”
For more of Smith’s interview with Greaves and additional pictures of the monument, head over to Vice.